Thursday, May 10, 2012

Tammy Mercure and Tourist Towns on NPR's Picture Show



Bristol, Tennessee-based photographer Tammy Mercure and her portfolio of photographs from Southern Appalachian tourist towns are today's selections on NPR's Picture Show blog.

Mercure earned this recognition because she is one of the 100 Superstar Southern artists recently designated by Oxford American Magazine.

The mountains have for generations been a place that Southerners have gone to get above the heat and the humidity.

Appalachian tourist towns range from the relaxed elegance of a Cashiers or a Highlands to the full-blown tackiness of a Pigeon Forge or a Gatlinburg.

Mercure's images tend to show us the tacky side of mountain tourist life.

A number of these images are also about the sublime indifference of tourists to anything except amusement parks, gun shops, and images of Dolly Parton, when the natural beauty of the mountains is all around them.

No comments:

Post a Comment